This invention relates to a portable mining dredge for collecting gold bearing sand and gravel from waterways or other wet depressions.
Recreational gold mining typically involves "panning" for gold in streambeds by placing sand and gravel that may contain gold into a pan for separation of any gold from the sand and gravel. The sand and gravel thus collected for separation is that which is easily accessible to the person doing the panning. However, sand and gravel located in non-accessible cracks and crevices of rocks inside or outside of the streambed is a fruitful source for gold, especially in streams where easily accessible sand and gravel may have been worked over by others.
In the past commercial dredging of gold bearing sand and gravel has been carried out using large hydraulic cannons and other large dredging devices. Such devices are clearly not usable by the recreational gold miner.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dredging apparatus which is portable, which simplifies the collection of potentially gold bearing sand and gravel for subsequent separation, and which can be used for retrieving potentially gold bearing sand and gravel from otherwise inaccessible locations in streambeds or from the cracks and crevices of rocks located outside of a streambed.